Advanced rules
Combat with defense/counters:
In the basic system, similar to systems used online for years, each opponent takes turns attacking, with no defensive skills counted. While quick and simple, such systems result in combatants looking silly at times. Spars at times resemble more the chopping down of trees than the attack and counter of a real combat. Foes appear to stand toe-to-toe, taking turns throwing blows at one another with no representation of reaction or defense. These rules address this issue, resulting in a more interactive appearance to combat. These rules should always be used for any armed combat, but may be used for unarmed combats as well.
For interactive combat, rounds take place with an "attack" (by the party holding initiative) and a "counter" (by the party holding "honors", or not holding initiative). The party with initiative describes and rolls for an attack, while the defender describes and rolls for a "counter". Note that the counter must always include some form of attack in the description, but can also can include (and usually will) a description of a parry, dodge, etc. The party with the highest successful roll wins the round of combat and damages the other. Any success obtained by the losing party reduces the damage taken, representing a partial thwarting of the victor's action (such as a parry, dodge or counter). The losing party describes the result before the proctor announces the score to start the next round. The winning party has initiative for the upcoming round, and begins with an attack which the loser attempts to counter, as before. Combat continues in this fashion, round to round, until the match is over as normal (usually at a preset total score of 15, or 20 for matches to the death).
Normally only one party (the one with the lower success) takes damage in any given round (exceptions are noted below). If one party succeeds and the other fails, full damage is inflicted to the loser; but when both succeed, the damage inflicted by the winner is reduced by the success of the loser. The party losing the round describes the outcome and then the next round begins. The winner of a round begins the attack to start the next round. If both parties fail, initiative remains with the party who had it already.
Example: Surbus (CS 65) and Tarl (CS 70) are fighting with swords. Surbus has initiative:
Surbus: "He lunges, thrusting his sword at Tarl's belly."
[Surbus rolls 1d100, getting "14"� a 1-point hit]
Tarl: "Blocks the thrust aside, slashing his blade across the chest after."
[Tarl rolls 1d100, getting a "57"� a 4-point hit]
[4-1=3, overall result: Surbus takes a 3-point wound, Tarl has initiative to start next round and takes no damage].
As can be seen from the example, damage determined from the winner's roll is reduced by damage from the loser's roll. An exception to this occurs if both parties succeed with exactly the same 1d100 roll; when this happens, both parties take full damage, allowing for a possible "double kill" sometimes seen in dueling. Note that if both parties roll the same damage, but not the exact same dice roll, they counter each other for no damage (i.e., a successful parry in effect). The winning party (one who rolled a higher successful roll) holds initiative; in the case of exact ties or both failing their rolls, initiative remains with whoever had it already.
Running away from a combat:
Attempts at flight from combat may be attempted in place of an attack or counter. A party attempting to flee never inflicts damage in a round, but escapes if his roll wins the round. A success that does not win the round reduces the damage taken as normal.
Poison:
Poison should never be used except in an agreed-upon Story Line or by free women defending themselves against a capture attempt with a sudden attack (using poisoned pins, etc). Note that the use of poison involves serious risk! (see below). To attempt a poisoned attack, the FW declares it during her round, and if she scores any points not blocked by defense, she has poisoned her captor who will instantly drop and soon die. If the attack is defeated by defense, she may not make any more poison attacks during the struggle, nor again until rearmed (it is assumed that the poison pins were damaged or dropped, and that the opponent is now aware of the danger and will not be easily taken by surprise). Poisons may be used in foods and such as part of an SL but not otherwise in combat.
The risk of using poison: Poison is a dangerous thing, at is easy to accidentally poison oneself in combat. Anyone attempting an attack or counter with a poisoned weapon who fails with a roll ending in "0"has poisoned herself and dies, just as any victim would have.
Capture/subdual:
Normally capture attempts involve guile or threat for success, but sometimes a capture attempt will come down to use of force. A struggle may even involve a pair trying to capture each other. An attack to subdue (i.e., grappling and pinning) is made at a penalty of -10 to CS, the damage is temporary (which is usually a good thing since subdual is not intended to injure), and any successful stun result lets you pin and bind your target with whatever materials you have at hand (or are creative enough to make use of�). A successful defense roll voids this pinning and binding, even if it fails to reduce incoming damage to zero or less. If a target has guards, you should deal with them first, or expect to become a pincushion. Note that if you reduce a target's endurance to 0 or less through subdual attempts the target is rendered unconscious and you can complete the binding at your leisure (again assuming no one is around to stop you).
Death and Death Matches:
In a death match, a character is mortally wounded outright ONLY if the blow that takes him past his endurance is an undefended critical hit/stun doing a full 4 points of damage. A success reducing this damage even by 1 point prevents the strike from being a mortal blow. A character who loses all endurance may be executed after the combat by the victor, however.
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